Thanksgiving is almost upon us and if you are back up to entertaining pre-covid size groups of friends and family you will notice that Thanksgiving dinner can become one of THE most expensive meals of the year. Below are some of my tips and tricks for making sure you have more than just turkey leftover for black Friday shopping!
Buy in Bulk: Generally speaking, buying in bulk saves money, unless of course, you have a small family and that case of milk will spoil before the three of you can drink it all. Thanksgiving is a whole ‘nother ballpark though. Make bulk shopping work to your advantage and buy the bigger bird! You will find that the bigger the turkey you buy, the more cost effective it is. Not entertaining enough people to get that twenty pounder? Buy it anyway- who doesn’t love turkey leftovers! Plus any COOKED meat can be re-frozen and used later to make delicious things like turkey noodle soup!
Stock up on loss leaders: Right now stores are orienting their loss leader items to holiday themed products so you should be expecting great deals on sugar, flour, butter, and canned vegetables. Buy them cheap now and then use them next month for all your holiday cookie and pie baking projects. BTW butter can even be frozen till you’re ready to use it.
Pot luck saves bucks: If your relatives are even slightly competent in the kitchen and there’s no fear of a repeat of ‘Uncle Fred’s fiesta food poisoning fiasco’ then pot luck is the way to go. When each person brings a dish it dilutes the financial burden of hosting a holiday. As the host, however, you should plan on providing the most expensive main course item (in this case, the turkey) or the item that is the most difficult to cook and then transport. If you’ve got that relative or friend that always brings something burnt beyond recognition then ask them to bring something foolproof like a bottle of wine, a bakery pie or biscuits, or the canned cranberry sauce.
What’s on clearance Clarence? If you know in advance that next year is going to be your year to host then start looking for deals on non-perishable items now. You can usually find items like table cloths, paper plates, paper napkins, decorations, and even crock pots after the holiday. Some stores are so desperate to get their Christmas stock out that they are running their Thanksgiving clearances now!
Hopefully these tips will help you save some ‘dough’ as you bake your pumpkin pies!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Cheers!
Love,
Marie
The thrifty-momcom 
This is really great advice! I always try to buy in bulk when possible because it really saves a lot of money.
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